I Knit BOOK GROUP

For the past few years IKL has hosted a book group on the first Tuesday of each month. It has a small but committed number of people attending every month. It would be great to see more people at the group knitting and chatting.

The next meeting is 4 Septemberfrom 6.30pm. The book is Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

I read this book years ago and although I've forgotten most of it I remember that I loved it. Dennis Potter wrote the BBC TV series, made in the 1980's, but I don't think I ever saw that.

I'm looking forward to reading it again, I'll probably start it on the train up to Liverppool tomorrow for my cousins wedding.

Everyone is welcome to the book group, all you have to do is read the book, or some of it, and come along with your knitting!

See you there.

Camp Bestival 2012

IKL and a troupe of volunteers spent last weekend at Camp Bestival in Dorset teaching and army of kids to knit. As usual (we've been to Camp Bestival every year) we had a brilliant time and we taught approximately 150,000 kids to (mostly finger) knit. OK, it probably wasn't that many but it felt like. Thanks to Deborah, Angela, Ros, Tania, Lorraine, Graham, Nicky, Heather and Becky, you are stars and I love you and I appreciate all your hard work. And so do the kids and their parents.

Camp Bestival really is a great festival. There's so much for the kids to do, the organiser really put a great deal of thought and work into it, then at night we get to dance and sing along to Kool and the Gang and the Happy Mondays!

There are so many photographs, here is a small selection.

This was our view.

Tania teaching. It's so rewarding when a person as small as this gets it and become a knitter.

I wont lie, several bottles of Pimms was consumed, after hours.

Ros, a vetaran CB Knitting Teacher, was only ever to be seen surrounded by 1000's of kids.

Lorraine (on the left) is teaching Lucia. I was thrilled to see Lucia and her mother Michelle. Michelle owned the Bonnington Square shop

Heather in pink t-shirt and Angela in black surrounded.

Graham teaching.

Graham always brings his spinning wheel. Sadly it saw no action this year as we were too busy.

The tent was gorgeous, I think you'll agree. This is the best use of a bird cage I have ever seen. The ceiling of the tent was covered in crocheted doilies.

We took the sheep and asked people to cover it in bits of finger knitting.

Deborah became obsessed with finger knitting.

Nicky, left with pink bandana, lost her voice from all the hard teaching!

just a little ciggie break.

see you next year!!!!

I Knit Lace Club

I'm currently knitting the fourth installment of the I Knit Lace Club. I'm having a great time dyeing, designing and knitting. The club consists of 4 installments of 100g of lace yarn, each installment comes with 2 lace patterns. I hand dye all of the yarns for my I Knit or Dye label and I thought I would show off some of the designs, all of which are by Jan Curchin or me!

The above two pictures show the design for the third instalment which was 100g and 1200m of 1 ply alpaca, silk and cashmere lace. Jan designed this faroese style shawl - the pattern was actually three-in-one as Jan worked out two sizes and added design instructions to make it a rectangle.

Below is my design for the same yarn. It is a circular shawl with three different designs and a border which measured about 50 inches in circumference.

The scarf directly below is designed by Jan and uses 100g and 400m 100% silk. It was the first installment. The yarn was so loved by Salina that she has just been into the shop and left with another 100g of it in bright pink to use for Elizabeth Freeman's Laminaria Shawl - available from www.knitty.com.

Below is my design for the first installment. It's a super easy triangular shawl with a crochet edge to give it a nice curly frill.

The second installment from me is below. It's a massive triangular shawl using 100g and 800m 60% silk 40% cashmere. It's truely floaty-light. It's based on a print o the wave design and as a triangular shawl it's stunning.

As soon as this club is finished we will be launching another. There will be four installments each with 2 patterns, as usual. Two installments will be 400m and the other two will be 600m. I think these will all be 100% silk. I'm using a swiss spun silk for the final installment of this current club and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. It's spectacular.

The next lace club will be perfect for those of you who knit Christmas gifts as the installments will be sent out in late August, September, October and November.

If you would like more information call the shop on 020 7261 1338.

I Knit (not just) Sock Club

I thought I would show you some of last years sock club patterns.

This is just a small selection of the patterns from last years club. There was 12 in total. I'm so looking forward to this next club. The sock and extra pattern are both knit and ready. I just have to dye the yarn...there's still a few days before it's too late.